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Profits in Poultry 
Keeping Solved 



BEST AUTHORITY ON POULTRY RAISING 



SAVE LABOR, TIME AND EXPENSE 



By 
EDGAR BRIGGS 

New Rochelle, New York 



Second Edition 



New Rochelle Pioneer Print 






<nX ,_^ 



Co 



! LfSHARY of CONGRESS f 

I Two Cooies Received • 

I JIJN 21 190^ I 
i 

Coeyneht Entry 

lASb Ct XXc, No, 

COPY B. 



Copyright 1906 and 1507 

By 

EDGAR BRIGGS 




EDGAR BRIGGS 
Author of "Profits in Poultry Keeping Solved'' 



INTRODUCTORY 



Just a few words here in the way of introduction to 
those who have never heard of me or of my new meth- 
ods. I was born a poultryman, as my father before 
me bred fancy stock all his life, so from a small boy I 
gathered the eggs, took charge of the poultry, exhibited 
at the county shows and had birds of my own. I have 
bred fancy stock all my life and tried the winter broiler 
business with fatal results, as hundreds of others have 
done. This led me to experimenting and also studying 
nature to see if there was not a way in which they 
could be raised on a large scale without any loss to 
speak of. The result is after ten years of careful ex- 
perimenting, I have solved the problem and am now 
able to put any poultry plant on a paying basis, regard- 
less of location or other obstacles, and plants that 
went out of business under the ordinary methods have 
started up under my new methods and made wonder- 
ful successes. My first edition put on the market one 
year ago have all been sold, as my second edition of 
3000 copies goes to press this April, 1907. 

My great feed at 10 cents per bushel will make any 
plant pay. After experimenting with processed oats 
my great feed for 10 years, I consider I now have as 
near a perfect feeding system as can be obtained for 
either a yarded or free range plant. Follow my meth- 
ods, laid downi in this book and success is certain. Read 
every line carefully. You cannot go wrong and a for- 
tune awaits any one who builds one of my free range 
plants, and yarded plants are bound to pay a handsome 
profit under this system of feeding. 

Very truly yours, 

EDGAR BRIGGS, 

Author. 




ONEITA MAY BRIGGS 
OLIVE MARIE B^RIGGS ELMER EARL BRIGGS 



CHAPTER I. 

How to erect and run a poultry ^plant for profit. 

In these few pages of as few words as possible, I 
am going to tell you how to erect and run a poultry 
plant on an entire new system for saving labor and 
making money. A plant for the farmer, for the busi- 
ness man. A plant that can be run by an amateur, so 
that one without experience can make it pay a profit 
from the start. It is conceded by men who know, 
that ninety-five out of every one hundred make a 
failure in the poultry business. The reason for this 
is because they go entirely opposite to nature in caring 
for them. A hen in her wild state roosts in trees and 
feeds on seeds of various kinds, worms and insects of 
everv description, and when you take her and shut 
her up in a yard you make a prisoner of her. Under 
such conditions you feed her on mashes of various 
kinds until you get her sick and out of condition, and 
the natural result is she does not lay more than one 
half the eggs she is capable of, and in some cases not 
an egg. Hens kept under such conditions in many 
cases die of Roup or Cholera or other malignant 
diseases. 

Another very important thing we can learn from 
the hen in her wild state. She always lays her brood 
of eggs during the Spring time; hatches and raises her 
chicks when the ground' gives up a crop of worms and 
various other insects, and by the^ time these chicks 
are fit to wean, dry weather of Summer comes on and 
worms and insects become scarce and the result is the 
hen lays no more eggs during the year. 

Now, in order to keep hens laying the year round, 
we must produce Springtime conditions the year 
around. And right here I want to say there is noth- 
ing tliat can take the place of insects equal to green 
cut bone. l)ut this is very hard to obtain in most 
phices, and especially on a large scale. Therefore, as 
a rule, wc must use beef scraps iiV place of it. 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER II. 



Location. 

I'irst of all, we must have a suitable location. 
1 his is a very important thing if you are going in 
the poultry business as a business. If you do not own 
a farm, by all means spend some time and get one 
suitable for the business. I advise not less than fifty 
to seventy-five acres. One with a nice big orchard 
on it is most desirable. And by all means, get a 
place with one or more streams of water running 
through it ; and if these streams are fed by springs, 
so much the better. Under no circumstances buy a 
place for the poultry business unless it is well watered, 
for this is where the saving of lal^or comes in, and 
the poultry will do much better — this is nature. 

(iCt a place sloping to the South with gravelly 
or sandy soil if ])ossible. Sixty acres will carry five 
thousand layers nicely and leave room enough to 
raise six thousand youngsters if it is laid out right, 
besides pasturing your horses, cows and various other 
things you will want on a farm. An ideal poultry 
farm should be incloserl with a five foot fence of wire 
netting and two barb wires over this. It should also 
have a base board of rough hemlock sunk two inches 
or more in the ground. This makes a fence proof 
agninst all kinds of animals, and there is nothing that 
lias more enemies than chickens. This is all the fence 
you will need on }our plant as a rule, unless you go in 
the fancy line, or in dividing your cockerels and 
pullets. In these cases, you should fence in the fields, 
your hens must have free range, if you want results. 
And you must remember the profit lies in eggs. 
Therefore, an egg plant is what you must have to 
make money, and a plant of this kind laid out right 
and handled properly can be run by the labor of one 
man most of the time, as under my system, labor is a 
very small item — and labor has put more poultry 
plants out of business than any other one thing. 



POULTRY RAISING. 



CHAPTER III. 

Laying out your plant. 

First, to lay out your plant, we will take your 
stream of water and build houses both sides of it, far 
enough from the stream to keep on high ground. Put 
your houses sixty to seventy-five feet apart, accord- 
ing to your ground, keeping sixty Leghorns to a house 
and fifty Wyandottes. Rocks or the larger breeds. 
You must flock your hens, then you will have 
no further trouble, as nearly every hen will go in her 
own house. 

To flock them, put your sixty hens in the house 
and keep them shut in for three days, letting them out, 
on the third day. one hour before dark. Your hens 
get acquainted in the three days they are shut up to- 
gether, and will ever after run much together and 
return to their own house. After trying houses of 
various kinds and styles. I have never found one that 
suits me so well as the one I shall describe, and I con- 
sider it the most perfect house built at the present 
time — and also the cheapest constructed. 




A Model Laying House. 



12 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER IV. 

Buildings. 

First, I will give you a list of the lumber that 
goes in such a house : 

Three chestnut planks, 2x8x20 ft, long. 

Thirty-three boards, 1x8x16 ft. long, tongue and 
groove. 

Thirty-three boards, 1x8x14 ft. long, tongue and 
groove. 

Twelve hemlock, 2x4-20 ft. long. 

Four, 2x3-10 ft, long, for roosts. 

Three windows, 8x10 glass, six panes each. 

This house is ten feet wide; twenty feet long; 
four feet high at eaves, with a double pitch roof. 
Made of tongue and groove boards, so that paper of 
any kind is not required. A roof of this kind will 
never leak, of any account, if put up with lumber well 
dried out. 

Cypress is the best of all lumber for these houses, 
as it will stand the weather — far better than any other 
kind, and it will last for many years without decaying. 
White pine is the next best, and the only other kind 
of lumber that can be used where no lining paper or 
roofing paper is used. Second quality lumber will 
ansAver every purpose if you use judgment in cutting 
it and putting it on, but you must have your lumber 
good and dry, then it will not shrink apart of any 
account. 

Use the best lumber on north side and ends of 
house. I will show a cut of this house. A view 
of the frame will aid you very much in building your 
first house. 



POULTRY RAISING. 



13 



Diagram of frame. 
2 X 4= 19 Ft. 8 In. Long 



Plank 2x 8= 20 Ft. Long 

Front View — Bottom 



Top 













2x4 = 20 Ft. Long 




ia 

^1 


1 




JiL 












¥ 


1 








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14 KRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 



CHAI'TER V. 

Directions for constructing house. 

1 will now tell you very plainly how to construct 
these houses, so anyone that can use a saw and ham- 
mer ought to be able to build one. 

First, square up your planks twenty feet long, 
then take 3^our third plank and make two planks ten 
feet long each. Now spike your twenty-foot plank on 
your ten-foot plank, using twenty-penny nails, and 
you ha\-e a box twenty feet long and ten feet four 
inches wide, outside measure. 

Now take a 2x4 and saw six pieces four feet long. 
Then saw out each one of these 2x8 ; these make 
your corner posts and also your center posts. Spike 
these firmly on your plank box, one in each corner, 
and one in centre of house, letting the 2x8 piece you 
saw out come on your plank. Nail from inside and 
let flat side come toward ends. This will make your 
outside even. Then saw four pieces, 3 ft. 4 in. long, 
to double your corners with. These nail from plank 
tip on each end. This will make then all even on 
-ends and sides. Now take a 2x4, just 20 ft. long, nail- 
ing one on each side flatways on top of your uprights, 
even with ends and outside. Now take a 2x4, ten feet 
four inches long, saw two inches out of each end, drop 
this in center of house on your plank, which drops 
Ijottom two inches below level of plank ; spike firmly 
both ways. This keeps your house from spreading 
and is also your division. Take a 2x4 nine feet eight 
inches long, spike this at end of house, away from 
door, between your 2x4 even with top of plate. This 
piece stays in and keeps your end from spreading and 
is also used to nail your end boards to. Now take 
two more 2x4, saw ten feet three inches long, nail one 
in center of house to upright under plate, nail the 



POULTRY RAISING. 15 

other at end where your door goes in same way, using' 
a twenty-penny nail — just one in each end — as both of 
these come out after your roof is on. These are used 
to keep house from spreading and are also used in 
putting roof on, as we lay a 20 ft. plank on them to 
stand on in nailing the roof on. Now saw two sets of 
rafters, each rafter 6 ft. 8 in. long. Heel must fit on 
plate and have your top come together nicely. 

Make a pattern and keep it for all future sawing, 
as you may have trouble fittijig the first pair. 

Nail each set together on ground, then spike firm- 
ly on end of your plates, even with outside in each 
case. After this, put in your ridge a 2x4 19 ft. 8 in. 
long. Spike this in peak, between your two sets of 
rafters, letting fiat side come even with South side of 
house, and upper edge even with peak. Spike firmly 
through end of rafters, using three spikes in each end. 
Then fit a pair of rafters in centre of house, raising- 
your ridge in center a little above level, ^l^en put in 
two crosspieces, three feet from peak on each side. 
Spike firmly through end rafters and center rafter, as 
your roof boards nail on these. Now set in your door 
studding in center of end. Make your door about 
thirty inches wdde, according to the width of your 
boards, and about six feet high. Put in a 2x4 on each- 
side, setting bottom on plank and sawing top to fit 
under rafter. Now put a short piece on top and you 
have your frame complete, except a 2x4 from door 
fraiue to corner of house, to nail your end l)oards to. 

Now you are ready for your siding. Take if you 
use white pine, 1x8 16 ft. long boards. Take sixteen- 
boards, sawing each in four feet lengths. This gives 
you 64 boards, four feet long. Begin at a corner, 
nailing one inch from top of plate, as your roof boards- 
come over these and just pass it. See that you get 
your joints perfectly tight. 

After putting on both sides, put on your ends, up 
and down, same as siding. Then for your roof saw 
your 14 ft. boards one half inch from center. This 
makes one half just one inch longer than the other. 



i6 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

Now plain off your groove in first board. Let this 
project one inch over end of house. Put on your south 
side first, using your shortest board, nailing boards 
about ^ of an inch from your peak, as your boards 
on north side nail over these, and in this case you use 
no ridge board. 

Your roof boards should be very dry, and put 
firmly together, and you will have no leaky roofs. 

Next, saw out for your windows. In same end of 
house you put your door. 

Put two windows in center of this part under 
plate on south side, by nailing a 2x2 for windows to 
slide on. You slide this pair of windows both ways. 
Put your other window in the other department, two 
boards from center of house, and under plate, just the 
same as the other pair, sliding it back. This is used 
principally for cleaning the house. 

Saw a hole for letting out fowls in first part of 
house under your two windows, and put in a slide 
which you can slide sideways with your foot, fitting 
this very loose. 

Now put in your roosts. First, nail a strip up 
and down seven feet from back end. Put a 2x4 block 
on plank to keep this strip out so window will slide in 
between. Now nail a seven foot > strip from end of 
house to your short strip, sixteen inches below top of 
plate. Do this on 'both sides and on these boards lay 
your roosts, 2x3 ten feet long. About five of these 
gives sixty hens plenty of room. You can either notch 
your board one half inch to lay them in, or let them 
lay loose on your board. Do not nail them. 

Now put in your wire netting partition in cen- 
ter of house, a door of wire netting. 

Put in your feed hoppers and nests, and your 
house is practically complete. 



POULTRY RAISING. 



17 



Dias:ram of end of house. 



^^ 




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^ 


Door 


^^v. 















10 Ft. 






End 



BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

Making of hoppers. 

Your feed hopper should be made large enough to 
take a bag of feed, one hundred pounds, which is sure 
to last a flock of sixty layers a full week. To make 
this, take a common hemlock board, twelve inches 
wide, for bottom and ends, saw a piece two feet long 
for bottom, two pieces three feet long for ends. Nail 
these together, ends in bottom. Now use tongue and 
groove boards for back and front. To put in pour 
back, fit your first board inside of ends, letting it come 
on bottom in center of hopper and top edge of board 
even with back of hopper, putting rest of back boards 
even with outside. Better put rest of boards on out- 
side. Now for your front put first board, one inch 
from bottom and one inch from your other board, let- 
ting top of board come even with outside front of 
feeder. Then board up on outside. This lets your 
feed come out in front. Now put a four inch strip 
across front at bottom. This keeps your hens from 
throwing out the grain. 

Now make another hopper about quarter size of 
this one for beef scraps. Make it in the same manner, 
only make the throat of it fully 1^/2 inches instead of 
one inch, as beef scraps will not feed readily like other 
grain and you will often have to give it a kick as it 
will clog up easily. A nice way is to give it a kick 
■every night when you gather the eggs. You can also 
make a three department box for oyster shells, grit, 
and charcoal which should be kept before them at all 
times — grit to grind their feed; oyster shells for lime 
in making shells, etc., and charcoal for medicine. 

Another hopper which can be made at no ex- 
pense and is grand for feeding beef scraps is as fol- 



POULTRY RAISING. 19- 

lows: Get a box at grocery store, say 15 inches long, 
5 inches wide, and 10 or 12 inches high, now board 
this box up tight, only leave a 3-inch opening across 
entire front of box at top. Fill this box with beef 
scraps, hang on a nail by boring a hole near top and 
your hens can eat until it is empty and no bother about 
clogging. Other sizes of boxes will work just the 
same. You can use one double this size for other 
feed. Your hen puts her head in this 3-inch opening 
and can eat until all is gone if your box is hung close 
to the ground and these boxes will cost you nothing 
at grocery store where you trade. 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

Care of layers. 

First, I will tell you how to care for three thou- 
sand layers with but little labor and you should clear 
$3,000 a year from them. 

If you have built your plant on a stream of water, 
you will have no watering to do. 

Keep your feed boxes filled at all times. 

Never let them get empty. 

Your main feed is best quality wheat screenings. 

Your large hopper will take a one hundred pound 
bag, which should last a full week, often two weeks. 

You should make a round every week and fill all 
your hoppers ; one with wheat screenings, one with 
beef scraps, and your three-department hopper with 
grit, oyster shells and charcoal. 

If your plant is built on a stream and inclosed 
with a good wire netting fence, all the work you have 
to do during the week is to gather your eggs every 
night and give each flock of fowls two quarts of 
cracked corn. 

Remember, your fowls have wheat feed before 
them all the time, so they can safely have a light feed 
of another kind of grain every night. 

A horse and wagon should be used for this work 
at all times. A good gentle horse that can be left 
standing and is afraid of nothing is what you want. 

From November until April you will have to- make 
two trips a day to your houses. As cold weather 
comes on, your windows will have to be closed nights 
and should be opened again in the morning when the 
sun shines and warms things up. 

On this same trip, you should give your hens 
all the processed oats they will eat — about four quarts. 



POULTRY RAISING. 



21 



In case }'ou have heavy snow storms, your hens 
can eat snow and they will lay just as many eggs as 
though they got to the brook to drink — and even more. 

Your last trip at night, you feed each flock one or 
two quarts of cracked corn, gather your eggs and 
shut the windows. The slide which lets your hens 
out is never closed. 

This feed is for flocks of sixty layers and this 
system will pay a good profit with but little labor, as 
you can easily see. 

You will not get an abundance of eggs during the 
winter under this system. 

You should keep the end of your house where 
your nests, hoppers, etc.. are. well bedded during the 
winter, and throw your grain in it so as to give them 
'all the exercise possil)le. 





















Typical White Leghorns 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

An egg plant for profit. 

-" I vvill now tell you how to run a large poultry 
^ plant for the greatest possible profit. This will re- 
c|.uire more labor, but will pay the most profit, labor 
■ considered, of anything I know of at the present time. 
I have experimented to my entire satisfaction, that 
fowls to be kept in perfect healthy condition, should 
have free access to feed at all times, and they will lay 
fully one-third to one-half more eggs a year— and eggs 
that will hatch, for they will be produced nature's 
way. 

I have found nothing so good as good quality 
wheat screenings to be kept before them at all times. 
So you must keep a hopper of wheat screenings always 
before them ; also one of beef scraps ; and they should 
also have grit, oyster shells and charcoal before them 
at all times. Now, if possible, in order to get your 
great profit, you must have a free range plant, such as 
I have described, and it should be a leghorn plant, and 
of all the leghorn family there is none that will pro- 
duce you more eggs and larger, finer eggs than the 
single comb White Leghorns. 

I am positive an average of 200 eggs a hen can 
be produced under this system of feeding and caring 
for them. 

One good man could care for five thousand layers 
during the summer, providing someone cared for the 
marketing of the eggs. But for winter care, say from 
November ist to April ist, it would keep two men 
busy, for my aim here is to tell you how to produce 
eggs the year around in the greatest possible number. 
--^ I will begin with the winter care, say November 

1st, when your stock should all be properly housed in 
the colony houses I have told you how to build. 



POULTRY RAISING. 23 

We will presume you have a leghorn plant of three to 
five thousand layers. We usually have much cold 
weather during November in this part of the state. 
Of course, you will have to vary thrs part of the sys- 
tem according to the weather. Here you must use 
judgment. The first thing in the morning, soon after 
daylight as convenient, start out witlT a load of pro- 
cessed oats, and give each flock of sixty layers about 
four quarts each. If the morning is warm, open your 
windows. If cold, leave your windows closed until 
your next trip, after breakfast, about 8 to 9 a. m. 

If morning is cold and freezing, you should take a 
load of warm water and give each flock enough for the 
day. The finest thing I know of to water a large plant 
of this kind is a two gallon butter crock. Get the 
low kind, for they are easily kept clean and require 
but little labor in filling. Even if your hens have free 
access to a stream of water, they should be watered 
in their houses during the winter if you want a large 
egg yield. In the morning, when your hen comes off 
the roost, she is apt to be dry, especially if she is lay- 
ing and it is very essential at this time that your hen 
should have warm water to drink, for cold water 
would chill her and make her dull and all hump up and 
the result is your egg yield stops. 

About 2 p. m. give each flock all they will eat 
of processed oats. Feed this very liberal, as you will 
find they will always be hungry for this and you can- 
not over feed them on it. About four quarts to a 
flock "is about right. This is one of the greatest egg 
producers I know of, and there is nothing which 
makes eggs so fertile. 

Your hen will eat these when she will look at noth- 
ing else. It can be produced for ten cents a bushel at 
the highest price — usually for eight cents a bushel. I 
will tell you in my next chapter how to process these 
oats. This alone is worth hundreds of dollars to any- 
one who keeps a large plant, as I will prove to you 
further on. 

For your last round, just before sundown, give 



M 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



each flock 2 quarts of cracked corn in their htter, to 
give them more exercise, (iather your eggs and close 
up your windows. If weather is \-erv warm, leave one 
of your windows open or ]>artly open in scratching 
part. You must use judgment in these things. A 
plant cared for this way during the winter should give 
you fifty to sixty per cent egg yield, right through, 
providing your pullets are laying age and your old 
hens have passed through their moult. 

You will see that I feed four times as much 
processed oats as I do any other kind of feed. Oats 
to a hen are what oats are to a horse. It gives them 
vigor and puts life in them, such as n.o other feed 
will do. 

If you follow these instructions to the letter, and 
use judgment in keeping your houses from getting too- 
warm during the day, you will never fail to bring in a 
load of eggs every day in the year. 

Always empty your water jars at night on this- 
last trip, so your hens will always be dry in the morn- 
ing when you come around with your load of waruT 
water. This is very important. 

About II a. m. give each flock of 60 layers about 
one quart of green cut bone and at the same time if 
weather is very cold gather your eggs, for if you are 
saving them for hatching care must be taken they do 
not eet chilled. 




A Winning Pen of White Wyandottes as Bred by Ross C. H. 
Hallock, St. Louis, Mo. 



POULTRY RAISING. 25 



CHAPTER IX. 



Summer Care. 



For the summer care of these flocks, beginning 
about April first, or as soon as the ground can be 
worked, take a strip of land along the ends of your 
house, which end is most convenient, and plow a good 
strip. If you have ten or twenty houses in a row, 
plow the length of them all, if 3'ou can. Now sow this 
strip liberally with oats, and if you can harrow this 
every morning so much the better ; and sow lightly 
of oats, three times a week, until the coming Novem- 
ber. Do this all summer long, using a spring tooth 
harrow, and your hens will work in this fresh ground 
for this grain continually. As this grain keeps sprout- 
ing and coming up all the time, you^will have spring- 
time for these hens from spring until November. If 
you follow this up, the result in eggs will surprise any- 
one. The hen keeps right on laying all through the 
summer and fall, and not even stop when she is moult- 
ing. So I claim under these conditions a two hundred 
to two hundred and fifty egg hen will be a common 
thing and flocks treated this way should average two 
hundred or more eggs each, for you see the hens feast 
on an al^undance of worms and insects as well, and 
they will not consume more than half the quantity of 
beef scraps when treated this way. 

In changing from winter to summer care, if your 
plant is laid out on streams of water as I have advised, 
you will have no watering to do, and just as soon as 
you get to plowing your ground you will gradually 
stop youi' green bone and processed oats, as your 
hens will get all these oats they can handle, now 
started in their natural way in the ground. The 
worms and insects they now get will take the place 



< 



26 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

of green cut bone, so all the work yon have to do 
during the summer is to cultivate this ground and 
keep sowing oats and at night hitch up your horse 
and give each flock of fowls about two quarts of 
cracked corn and gather your eggs. If you follow up 
this system, the hens will keep at it all during the 
moulting season. You must make your rounds every 
week during the summer and fill all your hoppers, one 
with beef scraps, one with wheat screenings. Also 
your grit, oyster shells and charcoal. These must be 
before them winter and summer. Never let them get 
empty, and when freezing weather comes in the fall 
you must change your plans at once if you want the 
egg yield to hold up. Remember this is where the 
profit comes in. Under no circumstances let your 
hens fall off on eggs, so start on your winter rations 
as I have outlined in a previous chapter, just as soon 
as severe weather of November comes on. 

During the summer, your windows are to be left 
open day and night; also your door, providing your 
plant is enclosed with a wire netting fence such as I 
described in opening chapter of this book. 

You must remember one thing. If you let your 
fowls get knocked out in any way, through careless- 
ness, it will take three to four weeks to get them back 
again. And you in the meantime have lost a month's 
laving of eggs. So great care and judgment must be 
used. Sickness will scarcely be known under these 
conditions. Your hens should always be in the pink 
of condition, and your eggs from Januar}^ to Septem- 
ber should run co per cent fertile and give wonderful 
hatches. I think you will agree with me that this is 
caring for fowls the nearest to nature's way of any 
svstem known at the present time. 



POULTRY RAISING. 



27 




■«"',v 



Pair Silver L-aced WyandcUes 



28 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER X. 

Processed Oats and How to Produce It. 

I will now tell you of one of the most wonderful 
feeds know^n at the present time. Positively one of 
the greatest egg producers ever discovered and some- 
thing that will make eggs hatch any time of the year. 
Oats to a hen is what oats is to a horse. What would 
a horse be worth without oats? But very little! The 
main objection to oats for fowls is their very tough 
hull, which is very hard to digest, and for this reason 
alone many people will not feed them to their hens. 
I have experimented very extensively with oats and 
have fed them for weeks boiled, with no results in 
eggs. They make a very good fattening feed when 
boiled, but of no value for eggs — simply put the hens 
out of laying condition. But when processed, hens 
eat them in preference to anything else. In fact, they 
will eat them wdien they will touch nothing else, while 
on the other hand, the}- are the last things eaten by 
the hens in their natural dry state. I will now tell you 
how to process them. 

Take a pail of good, ordinary oats, same as you 
feed your horses, cover them with water and let them 
soak twenty-four hours, then turn them in a larger 
pail, one that will hoUl double the amount, first bore a 
1-2 inch hole in \our ])ail l)efore turning them in, so it 
will not hold water; leave in this pail until they sprout 
thoroughly and begin to germinate heat, which will be 
in three or four days if in a moderate warm place. Al- 
ways keep covered with an old bag and stir and sprin- 
kle with water once daily. After they become a mass 
of roots turn into a box holding about 5 "pails. The 
oats should not be over three or four inches thick in 
the box. This must also have a couple of 1-2 inch 



POULTRY RAISING. 29 

holes in bottom so water will quickly drain oft" when 
you wet them each day. They will grow very rapidly 
v/hen they begin to sprout and are at their best for 
feeding when sprouts are 1-2 inch to i inch long, and 
one bushel will make from four to fi\'e bushels if oats 
are good and grow as they should. Always keep oats 
covered with a heavy bag or old blankets to keep them 
warm for they will grow much faster, and your 
sprouts will remain white and \ery crisp. By feed- 
ing when sprouts are only 1-2 to i inch long you not 
only get the value of your oats, but they also take the 
place of green feed, and there is nothing I know of 
which will start hens laying so cjuickly and will make 
so many eggs during the year. Give your layers 
twice a day all the}' will take. 

For growing young chicks there is nothing like 
them. Give your little chicks all they will eat three 
times a day after they are a week old. They are at 
their best for little chicks when sprouts are 1-2 inch 
lonsT. 




A Typical White Wyandotte Hen. 

If possible always grow them in a cellar, but in 
warm weather they can be grown under open sheds, 
under trees or north side of buildings. 

Xow for a large plant where you must grow them 
in large quantities you will find a butter tub a fine 
thing to soak them in. Thev can generallv be gotten 



30 BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 

at a grocery store for five cents each. You fill your 
tub three-quarters full of oats and fill up with water, 
let them soak twenty-four hours, then turn in a barrel 
that you have put a couple one-half inch holes in so 
water can drain off. Now if you soak two or three 
tubs at a time you can dump them all in one barrel, 
and leave them in this barrel until they sprout and be- 
g-in to heat. They should be thoroughly wet every 
day so long as they remain in the barrel, and as soon 
as they germinate heat they must be dumped in boxes 
that have holes in bottom say three to five inches 
thick, and wet and turned daily until ready for feed- 
ing. If they get too hot in boxes cool down with 
■cold water and spread out thinner. To have them at 
their best you should start a lot e\'ery day and keep 
them fed up as fast as they get fit. You will soon 
learn just how many to start every day. A little 
cayenne pepper and salt distributed through them 
evenlv when fed will greatly increa'se'your egg yield 
and keep your hens in the pink of condition, a tea- 
spoonful of pepper and one of salt to a common pail- 
ful. T, as an experiment, kept two pens of leghorns 
six months on this processed oats and beef scraps 
in front of them and no other feed and they laid well 
all that time and went through the earliest moult of 
anv liens on the plant. Although I do not advise feed- 
ing them alone. VyXow if this falls in the hands of one 
Avho has no cellar to grow their oats in, nor no warm 
place in winter, they can be grown in an open shed 
or barn l)y piling up a foot or more of horse manure 
and setting your box on it and bank your box on all 
sides with horse manure, put on a board cover and 
throw over this a blanket and you can easily grow 
them in such boxes during the coldest winter weather. 
You can grow them nnich quicker in winter time by 
wetting them with warm water, but in summer time 
they should always be wet with cold water. They 
also make a great feed for ducks. I give my old breed- 
ers all they will take noons and my little ducks after 
ten (laAS old all thev will take three times daily. Now 



POULTRY RAISING. 



31 



remember there is nothing that will grow chicks so 
fast as these processed oats, and nothing so cheap 
for when they grow at their best tl;ey can be grown 
for ten cents per bushel, and there is nothing that 
will make hens lay so many eggs nor such fertile eggs. 
This feeding system alone is worth hundreds of dol- 
lars to any one w^ith a big plant, and for small yarded 
l)lants it solves Uhe green feed question entirely and 
will make any plant pay a profit. Leghorn pullets 
can be grown and put to laying at four months of age 
on this feed. I have also done it with White Rocks 
and \\'hitc W'vandottes. 




Pen of White Wyandottes 



32 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XI. 

Caring for a free range plant without labor. 

In this chapter, I will tell you how to care for 
a free range plant with practically no labor, only 
gathering your eggs and caring for them. 

First, make a feed hopper, as I have described, 
to hold a bag of feed. You should have three of these, 
fill one with wheat screenings, one with oats, one 
with cracked corn. Also your small hopper with beef 
scraps and your three-department hopper with grit, 
oyster shells and charcoal. And if your plant is built 
on a stream of water and inclosed with a wire netting 
fence, as I have described, all the work you have to 
do is to gather your eggs every night and send your 
man around once a week and fill all your hoppers. He 
should also put carbolic acid and kerosene, half and 
half, well mixed, on the roosts once a month during 
the winter and twice a month during the summer. 
In September he should clean the houses out thor- 
oughly and coat them over with new sand. Your hens 
will go to the creek to drink, and in winter, if ground 
is covered with snow, let them eat snow and they 
will lay more eggs. The hole which lets them out of 
the house should never be closed, day or night, winter 
or summer. In the winter time your windows would 
have to be ke])t closed and your hens will pay you a 
fine profit under this system with practically no labor. 
You will not get a big egg yield during the winter, 
but you can depend on a profit of one dollar or more 
from each hen on this no-labor-system. You will be 
suri)rised at the results. And for a business man in 
the cit_\- who owns a small i)lace in the country, and 
wishes to make some money at home while he is away, 
there is nothing I know^ of that can pay him so large 
a profit on his monev invested as a jwultry plant run 



POULTRY RAISING. 



33 



on these lines. Of course, in tliis case }'on would 
have to buy }-our l)ree(lers each seuson and the l)est 
way to do this is to sell off half of^your stock during 
the earl}- fall and replace them with ;ndlets of which 
you can always buy at one dollar each during Se])teni- 
ber and ( )ctol)er. You can buy better birds for your 
money during these two months than at an\- other 
time of the year. One reason I specially advise single 
comb white Leghorns in preference to any other 
breed, is because you can always buy all you want for 
one dollar each, good laying stock. 

I advise changing your breeding stock at end of 
second year's laying, as two years is all a hen can be 
relied on to pay a good profit and she should never 
be kept after this unless she is an extra good one 
which vou want to use as a breeder. 




905 



White Leghorn Cock — A Typical Specimen 



34 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XII. 

Caring for a yarded plant. 

I am now going to tell you how to handle a yard- 
ed plant for the greatest possible profit, to those who 
are so unfortunate as to own one, for such plants sel- 
dom pay unless it is used for breeding fancy stock. 
I have experimented for many months on yarded 
plants and I find that hens even over crowded in 
small runs will produce more than double the eggs 
fed on the hopper system tlian they will fed the other 
way. Just keep good quality wheat screenings and 
beef scraps before them at all times and give a liberal 
feecHng of processed oats in the morning — all they will 
eat — and at 3 p. m. another feeding of processed oats — • 
all the}' will eat. Remember you cannot over-feed 
them on the processed oats, as they are light and 
quickly digested. At night give a light feeding of 
cracked corn in litter in winter and you will be sur- 
prised at the results. Your fowls will always be in 
the pink of condition and practically no sickness 
among them. Roup, colds and cholera will scarcely 
be known, even on the same plants that have always 
been full of it, when the hens had their daily mashes, 
all they could eat of it. 

I will also give you another valuable secret for a 
yarded plant. If your hens have long, narrow yards, 
say 10x60 or more feet long, I will tell you how to 
keep green feed in their yards all summer. Spade up 
half the yard, sow it to oats early in the spring and 
put in cross boards eight inches high, cover it over 
Avith one inch mesh wire netting, stretching it tight 
and stapling it firmly to the boards. As soon as your 
oats get a good start your hens will eat them through 



POULTRY RAISING 



35 



the wire netting and your oats will grow just as fast 
as your hens can eat them off. In this way they will 
be supplied with green feed all synimer long. I am 
satisfied a yarded plant can be made to pay, run on 
this new line and cut your mashes entirely out. If 
possible, feed green cut bone once a day. About ii 
a. m. I find the best time for this. If you are in a 
position to get plenty of green cut bone, feed a yarded 
plant as follows: Keep a hopper of wheat screenings, 
also one of beef scraps, always l)efore them, as well 
as grit, oyster shells and charcoal. Give a feeding of 
processed oats in the morning and ii a. m. a light 
feeding of green cut bone ; 2 p. m. another feeding of 
processed oats, all they will eat ; at night a light feed- 
ing of cracked corn in litter to induce exercise, and 
your fowls will keep in the pink of condition, lay well 
all winter long, and colds and roup will hardly be 
known, if they are properly housed. They should be 
watered with warm water in very cold weather, as they 
are always dry in the morning and should not be al- 
lowed to fill themselves on ice water. After they drink 
all they want of water in the morning, during the rest 
of the day they will drink but little at a time and cold 
water will not hurt them. 






A Winning White Wyandotte Cockerel. 



36 BRIGGS- SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Feeding a yarded plant for the greatest possible profit. 

I will now tell yon how to feed a yarded plant for 
the greatest possible profit and still ha\'e healthy birds 
and prodnce eggs that will rnn fnlly 90 per cent fertile 
in Jannar}-. This method will prodnce more wdnter eggs 
than any method I know of at the present time. jKeep 
a ho])]3er of wheat screenings, one of beef scraps, al- 
wa}s l)efore them. Also your grit, oyster shells and 
charcoal — never let them get out of any one of these 
ingredients. As soon as it is light, give each flock a 
few handfuls of barley or l)nckwheat in the litter to 
keep them busy ; say a pint to twenty hens. 

Al)out 9 a. m. give all the processed oats they will 
take. 

.Aliout II a. m. gi\e a light feeding of green cut 
l^one, just what the_\' \vill eat up nicel}', not over 1-4 
to 1-3 oz. to a hen. 

About 2 p. m. feed all the processed oats they will 
eat. 

Just before going to roost, give a light feeding of 
cracked corn, thrown in their litter — they will not take 
much as a rule. 

In the morning give your hens good, clean warm 
water. This is very important, for the more your 
hens drink the more eggs they will lay. 

Always dump all your drinking fountains at night 
so vour hens will be sure to be good and dry in the 
morning, and start ofl: with warm water. 

If you keep your windows well opened during the 
dav, so vour hens do not get too warm, you will have 
no trouble in getting an abundance of eggs all winter 
long. For if you knock your hens out by over-heating 
them or leaving your windows open, just one night, 
carelesslv, it will take three weeks to get them back 



POULTRY RAISING. Z7 

on eggs again. Yon must nsc judgment in this re- 
spect. A yarded plant fed this way will keep per- 
fectly healthy and lay an abundance of eggs the year 
around. Imt can never compare with a free range plant, 
fed on the system I described for producing the great- 
est amount of eggs. 

One more advantage in feeding a plant this 
way, you can get eggs from Leghorns that will 
run 90 per cent fertile right in January under this 
system, and hatch fully as good as eggs usually hatch 
in April. A\'yandotte and Rock eggs will run from 
■80 to 85 per cent fertile, and for anyone who wants to 
raise early broilers, you can easily see the great value 
of this method of feeding. 

In case vou cannot conveniently gi\"e your hens 
warm water to drink in the morning, leave water be- 
fore them all the time or water first thing in the 
morning before hens come ofif the roost. 

If }Our houses have dropping boards, you should 
•clean the (h-opj)ings off at least twice a week the year 
around. In the houses I ha\e described for your free 
range plant, your droppings g"o right on the ground 
and it is not at all necessary to clean them out oftcncr 
than twice a year; so you can see the amoimt of labor 
■saved. 

For nests in these colony houses that I have told 
you how to build, I ad\'ise making three sets of five 
nests each for each house, which can easily be made. 
A common hemlock board, twelve inches wide, will 
answer cverv purpose. Saw a piece, four feet six 
inches long, three of these will make }Our top, bottom 
and back. L^se four ]:>artitions, one foot long and for 
your front, a four inch strip is all you want, and you 
liave a set of five nests quickly and easily made. You 
can either nail these to siding or put a couple of holes 
in them and hang them on hooks, about one foot from 
the ground, just so a hen can look in them, and then 
she will jump in them from the ground. 

Three sets of these nests should go in e\'cry house 
for a flock of sixty lavers. 



38 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 




Wh;teWyando1teCKr 

NewYorK 1804 

OwnecL ^y 

A.CHana/kins Lancas+er Ma5S. 



White Wyandotte Cockerel 

A noted New York Winner, owned by one who breeds the 
world's best. 



POULTRY RAISING. 39 



CHAPTER XIV. 

How to build an ideal incubator house. 

I have told you in my former chapters how to 
produce your eggs in the greatest possible number and 
how to produce eggs that will give you the largest 
hatches. Now you will want to know how to hatch 
them. First, I will tell you how to build what I con- 
sider the most perfect incubator house. Select a side 
hill if you have one near by, for a perfect incubator 
house should be part under ground and part on top. 
You can determine size of house by the number of 
machines you want to use and the number of chicks 
you wish to hatch. lUit it is always safer to build 
much larger than \our- present needs, then you will 
not have to rebuild or enlarge when your business 
grows. 

To build this house, put. up a wall of stone, five 
feet high on all four sides, putting in windows at the 
top of your wall a four pane window, 8x10 glass, will 
answer the purpose nicely. Hinge at bottom so it will 
open inside. 

Put windows on each side and at south end. Put 
none on north side. A window every ten feet is about 
right. Now put a window in each end for ventilation. 
Put these windows near peak, a six light window ; 
8x10 glass, and in summer these can be left open for 
ventilation. This makes an ideal incubator house. 

Throw up dirt to top of wall on all sides, except 
South end, and put in a double door wide enough to 
carry out any incubator set up. 

The air in such a house alwaA's smells free from 
lamp smoke and if you fail to get good hatches in 
such a house you will know it is not the fault of the 
house. 



40 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XV. 

How to run an incubator.. 

I want to say a few words here in regard to ruri- 
ning- an incubator, especially to the beginner. First;, 
after setting up your machine and starting your lamp;, 
you ' must let up your regulator. Keep unscrewing 
it until temperature goes up to 1023/2 degrees. Re- 
member the temperature cannot raise when your disk 
over lamp is raised. But when you get temperature 
to 1023/ and your disk raised ji of an inch, or so it 
just clears, then your machine is ready for the eggs. 

Better run your machine twenty-four hours after 
you get your temperature right before putting in the 
eggs. As soon as you put your eggs in, your tempera- 
ture will disappear ; give your machine twenty-four 
hours to get back to I02/^ degrees. Run your venti- 
lation according to directions sent with the machine 
you use. 

Change trays from side to side in the morning, 
and from end to end at night, in a two tray machine 
and tm-n the eggs at end of third day and fourth day^ 
After this turn twice a day until eighteenth day. Turn 
last time at end of eighteenth day but continue to 
change your tray from side to side and end to end until 
you see the first pip. Handle your eggs very care- 
fully at end of eighteenth day on, and do not jar 
them in changing your trays. Now, remember^, 
animal heat begins to take place after seventh day 
and your temperature will begin to work up and you 
must give your regulating nut part of a turn evei"y 
time the temperature crawls up to 103 so as to keep it 
down as near 102^/2 as possible, if you are operating 
your machine in a room which registers above 65 de- 
grees. If not over 40 to 45 degrees, then keep your 
manchine at 103 and do not air your eggs. 

In a room of 50 to 70 degrees begin airing your 



POULTRY RAISING. 41 

eggs on fifth day and air each night, depending on 
temperature of room. 

A good airing for an hour or two on seventeenth 
da}- will much improve your hatch In warm weather. 

Give plenty of air during hot weather. 

Good, fresh eggs hatch much better than those 
kept two or three weeks. 

If you are hatching white eggs test them on fifth 
day, and take out all clear eggs and dead germs. 

If you are incubating brown shelled eggs, leave 
them in seven days when you can test them nicely, 
■taking out all clear eggs and dead germs. 

They should be tested again at end of fifteenth 
day. Remove all dead eggs and if you have not a 
good fair size shell, you must give more ventilation, 
for you cannot get a good hatch without a good size 
air cell. 

After you see your first pip, do not open your* 
machines again under any circumstances until your 
hatch is practically through : say the morning of the 
twenty-first day for Leghorns, and end of twenty-first 
day for all large breeds. 

Leave chicks in incubator fully twenty-four hours 
after all are out. 

Just a word about buying an incubator. I have 
tried nearly all the leading makes of incubators on the 
market, especially those made in the east, and also 
some of the western machines, and I firmly believe to- 
day there is no machine made to equal the latest Cv- 
phers, made by the Cyphers Incubator Co., of Buf- 
falo. N. Y. Their 1906 model is far ahead of their old 
style machine, and the increased depth to the egg 
chaml)er with their nursery drawers makes it a first- 
class hatcher in warm v/eather as well as cold. And I 
believe it to be as near perfect as a machine can be 
"built, and if you fail to get a good hatch with it as a 
rule, you will know the fault lies either with yourself 
or the eggs. Now comes the most difiicult part of all, 
the business of raising the chicks. Here is where thev 
nearl\- all fail except those using mv svstei 



Mn. 



BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 




FRiTPR E B05T H 1906 *«^j»tf- 



PRJIPR 1^ B05T0N 1905 ASCKL) -s -_-i \ I h 



White Leghorn Cock 

A typical Boston Winner, bred by D. W. Young, Ridgewood, 
N. J., who breeds the world's best. 



POULTRY RAISING. 43 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Chicks raised nature's way. 

First of all you must get the best brooder made 
if you expect to be successful and if you are not in 
the broiler business and do not want to hatch only 
breeders, then I advise getting- your first hatches out 
about March 20th, and for this system on a large scale, 
taking everything into consideration\l believe to-day 
there is no brooder made equal to' the latest Cyphers 
Self-Regulating Brooders for outdoor use, costing $17. 
This brooder can be successfully used out of doors 
from March 20th on and you never have to worry 
about your heat nights as long as }ou run a good big 
flame for it regulates the same as an incubator, so 
there is no danger of overheating your chicks nor 
chilling them as long as you keep flame enough to 
keep up your heat. { Th ese brooders will safely carry 
75 to 100 chicks, and if they are hatched strong jand 
properly cared for according to my instructions, you 
should raise nearly every chick put out. 

To do this on a large scale, to raise from three 
to six thousand, you must keep some one among your 
chicks all the time if you do not want them all carried 
away by hawks and crows and various other animals, 
as there is nothing we raise that have so many ene- 
mies. 

I will here name you some of their worst enemies 
when they are small : Hawks, crows, rats, weasels, 
cats, skunks, woodchucks in rare cases, raccoons, foxes. 

Select for raising 5'our chicks a nice, large orchard 
if you have one, if not, you must put up some artificial 
shade. Put your brooders in rows across the lot, about 
ten feet apart, and try to hatch in one week enough 



44 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

chicks for a row of brooders. About sixty feet in 
front of this row put up a one and one-half foot fence 
of one inch mesh wire netting; then another row of 
brooders, about eight feet from this fence ; then an- 
other fence same as the other. 

It makes no difference how many brooders on a 
line, twenty could be handled all right if they were all 
filled with chicks at near the same time. 

If the field was near level, they would equalize 
themselves all right in the brooders. 

You can safely put seventy-five chicks in each 
brooder and should have no trouljle in raising seventy 
of them to maturity if you follow my instructions to 
the letter. 

C_ For feed and care. I first grind fine all egg shells 
they hatch from, and feed these for first three days, 
putting chick feed before them the second day. You 
must see that they are ne^•er out of feed again as long 
as you own them. Here is one of the secrets of suc- 
cess, for if your chicks always have free access to 
feed — they will never overeat and die of indigestion. 
As soon as you put them out, give them fine grit and 
fine charcoal, also water that is lukewarm, and your 
egg shells, and, as I said next day put chick feed be- 
fore them. 

On the third day also put beef scraps before theuT 
and see that they are never without it. liegin feeding 
them processed oats, same as you do yoiu- hens — 
on the seventh day they will cpiickly take to it 
and eat oft' all the roots and s]M-oiits. leaving noth- 
ing ])ut the hulls. k>e(l them all the processed 
oats they will take from then on, say three times 
a dav. Do not be afraid, for they cannot o^-e•r- 
eat of it, and rememlier this costs only ten cents 
a bushel. You can thus see Iioav cheap you can raise 
your chicks. 

Remember from the seventh dav on }'our chicks 
must have always before them water, chick feed, grit, 
charcoal and beef scrap : also feed three times a day 
all the processed oats they can eat. I generally set a 



POULTRY RAISING. 45 

panful in the pen first thing in the morning and again 
at noon, dumping out the hulls every time. And 
again at about 4 p. m. I sec thaj: they have just all 
thev can eat, and 1 wish you could see them grow. It 
is a pleasure to raise chickens this way where sickness 
is scarcely known. 

After three weeks, change from chick food to a 
good qualit\' of wheat screenings which must also be 
kept before them from then on as long as you own 
them. It is giving grand results, and I know' of noth- 
ing that can in any way com])are with it for growing 
young chicks, and nothing so cheap as this screenings 
and processed oats. If you cannot get good screenings 
use wheat. 

After three da}s old, your chicks should always 
have before them grit, charcoal, beef scraps, chick 
food until you change for wheat screenings or wdieat, 
and water to drink — and good, clean, fresh water is 
very important — in fact thousands of chickens are lost 
every year through dirty water and filthy drinking 
dishes, as disease starts in the drinking fountains in 
manv cases. 

If your fountains are not kept clean, and if you are 
not particular and wash out your fountains every time 
\'OU fill them, slime collects on the inside, and I c<')n- 
sider this rank poison to the chickens. 

The l)est fountain }'Ou can get is the two piece 
earthen fountain, which keeps the water cool and 
.clean. I would not use any other kind under any cir- 
cumstances. If }OU c'lTi yard yoin' little chicks on a 
stream of water, so much the l)etter, and nuich labor 
is saved. 

When your little chicks are first ])ut out, they 
should be looked after several times a da}', and }'OU 
must see that they do not get chilled. 

Keep your brooder at 95 degrees first five days, 
then it should be lowered to 90 degrees. After two 
weeks to 85 degrees, and after three weeks to 80 de- 
grees and gradualh' harden them oft, depending on the 
season of the vear and the weather. PI ere is where 



46 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



■common sense and judgment counts. Give your 
chicks heat just as long as they want it, if you wish 
to attain the most rapid growth, and this is what 
•counts if you wish rugged birds of extra good size, for 
such birds, as a rule, are never sick. 

After your chicks are four weeks old, give a light 
feeding every night of cracked corn until they are 
matured. If they are Leghorns, this can be kept up 
as long as you own them, with grand results. 

I am now going to give you the secret of success in 
raising your chicks and putting them over the danger 
period, especiall}^ Leghorns, which is from twenty 
to forty days old. This is raising them nature's way. 




White Wyandotte Cockerel 



Li front of my colony house brooders, say six 
feet, I plow a good big strip the entire length of all 
my brooders. I do this the day chicks begin to hatch, 
and I sow this lightlv with oats. By the time the 
chicks come out of their brooders, the oats are nicely 
sprouted. I let the chicks out of the colony brooders 
the third day, about lo a. m., if weather is nice. The 
next day I let them out, I run the harrow over the 
ground and sow more oats. Every day after this I 



POULTRY RAISING. 47 

harrow this ground. And I sow more oats every other 
day. The result the chicks keep at work from morning 
until night, and never get time to become sick. 

You ought to see them grow on this system. 
I consider this the only perfect way to raise chicks, 
and the only successful way. Pullets raised this way 
should lay at four to five months of age. 

As soon as they weigh two pounds each, or near 
this weight, the cockerels should be marketed — except 
what you use for breeders — and these should be sep- 
arated from the pullets, in order to mature them fine. 
If the eggs which your chickens arc hatched from 
are produced under my system you should have no 
trouble in raising fully ninety-five out of every hun- 
dred you hatch providing the eggs are from yearling 
hens, or fully matured pullets. 

Bear in mind, the most critical time of your 
chick's life is between twenty and forty days old. 
This is the period they must not be neglected, as they 
begin to grow rapidly at this age. 

You must sow more liberal of your oats at this 
time, and do not neglect your harrowing, for it takes 
but a short time each day. 

Y'ou must also give your chicks all the processed 
oats they will take at this time. 

In order to economize and save labor as soon as 
the chicks are large enough to leave the brooder, you 
can move your pullets to your laying houses, that is, 
the pullets which you want to keep for your own 
breeding stock to take the place of your yearlings. 

When you want to replace a flock of old hens 
with pullets, just put a lean to on back end of your 
laying house, say 6x6 ft. square would answer every 
purpose. Y^ou can put this up with a single pitch 
roof and a wire netting front, and put some low roosts 
in here and shut in sixty of your finest, largest pullets 
for three days, when you can let them run with the 
hens. 

Feed chicks in their own department in an open 
trough, keeping it full of wheat screenings; also beef 



48 BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 

scraps before them all the time, also grit and charcoal. 
They will grow fine here and mature very rapidly. 

When you sell }our old hens, just shut chicks 
out of their department and they will go right in the 
main house and never have to be changed. When 
they start to laying, they will keep right at it and you 
will gain a full month's eggs under this S}'stem. 

This lean-too is also very handy for shutting up 
sitting hens and various other purposes. 

.For earlier hatches, if }-ou find you want to hatch 
very early and also to have some houses to carry ov^r 
some surplus birds in case you go in the fancy stock, 
you can build one row of houses same style as your 
laying houses, only one-fifth smaller. Use sixteen 
feet plank, and make your house eight feet wide and 
sixteen feet long, outside measure, in each case. Make 
your house four feet high at eaves, same as your lay- 
ing houses. For the roof, saw a sixteen feet board in 
three pieces, and saw rafters five feet one inch long. 
Build it the same as laying houses, with wire netting 
partition, and you have an ideal house for the busi- 
ness. Put in windows the same size as you use for 
your laying houses, one in each side in center of each 
department, also a slide under each window for letting 
them out. 

Use a good indoor brooder for these houses. I 
can sell you a good brooder for $5 to imt in these 
houses, one that will raise your chicks. You cannot 
put up too many of these houses, for I consider this 
the ideal way of raising chicks. 

Now handle these chicks just the same as I have 
outlined for the others, except you use these houses 
in h'ebruarv and ]\larch, when vou cannot plough the 
ground, so }Ou Avill start these chicks same as I have 
told }oii, except on the sexenth (la\- you begin feeding 
processed oats to your chicks, and give them all they 
will eat of them from then on. and see that thev are 
never out of chick feed. It will be a pleasure to see 
them groAv, and sick chickens will be rare under this 
svstem of feeding — and vour cost in raisintr them will 



POULTRY RAISING. 



49 



be very lii;ht, as ^•ou will fi'ncl their main feed is pro- 
-cessecl oats at 8 to lo cents a bushel. 

When }our chicks are large enough to think of 
roosting, and need heat no more, you should market 
the cockerels for squab broilers, if possible, at eight 
to ten weeks old, and remove your pullets to your lay- 
ing houses. Your brooders are then ready for another 
batch of later chicks wdiich can be allowed to grow up 
in these houses. 

You will find these houses very handy for winter- 
ing surplus cockerels and pullets, and it is always 
nice to have some surplus birds on hand. 

T think I have made things very plain and if you 
will follow my instructions you will have no trouble 
in raising }Our chicks, providing your eggs are pro- 
duced imder mv method of feeding, from healthy 
stock. 




Light Brahma Bantam 



50 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Raising broilers — bowel trouble, its cause and cure. 

This chapter is written expressly for broiler men 
and those who keep their hens mainly on mashes. 

As I have been through the same experience in 
my clay, and have seen whole broods die off like 
poisoned flies with bowel trouble, and have tried 
everything I had ever heard of, but with no results 
until I took all feed away for three days and gave only 
charcoal to eat, and boiled milk to drink, with a good 
quantity of black pepper put in, and this stopped the 
diarrhoe completely. But many would die any way, so 
I experimented even further, for you can depend upon 
it, if some in each batch have it on the start of the 
season it will get worse every hatch. So, for first 
three days I gave only charcoal to eat, and boiled milk 
to drink, with plenty of black pepper in it. The result 
was I had scarcely a case of it after this. But these 
chickens I found were very difficult to raise anyway, 
so I had to look still further for my trouble, and I 
found all the trouble lied in the feeding of the breed- 
ers. You will find in nearly every case the foundation 
of all your trouble lies in your breeding stock. 

If you want healthy rugged birds, free from dis- 
ease, never feed them a mash. 

The cheapest way of all to feed and have healthy 
rugged birds, free from disease at all times, is to feed 
as I have told you, except in place of }'Our light mash 
at 9 a. m., give 30ur hens a good feeding of processed 
oats, nature's own feed. If you will produce your 
eggs in this way, from yearling hens mated, with fully 
developed cockerels, not less than ten months old, you 
can raise practically every chick you hatch, even in a 
long piped brooder house providing you can run your 
temperature anywhere from 80 to 95 degrees. This, 



POULTRY RAISING. Si 

you know, is a big A^ariation ; but strong, healthy chicks 
can stand a lot and not get sick. Once they get sick, 
they will bunch up, and this is the last of them, for 
they can die about as fast as you can'hatch them. 

You will find most of the big breeders, who are in 
the fancy stock raising, all use hens for hatching and 
raising them, and get all their neighbors to hatch and 
raise for them, for they cannot hatch them and raise 
them with incubators and brooders, just because their 
breeders are fed on mashes, so as to get a "big yield 
to supply their large trade in eggs for hatching. 
Nearh^ all the eggs sent out for liatching by the single 
sittings, at a big price, always are hatched by the old 
hen and raised by them on free range, which will 
pull them through if anything will. 

Under my system of feeding, eggs laid here in 
January are running 90 per cent fertile, and have 
hatched as high as 93^ per cent of fertile eggs. 

Other years' chicks, weak and sickly, almost im- 
possible to raise, which shows you without a question 
that it all lies in the feed. 

You can see at a glance why every one who has 
tried the broiler business as a business, has failed at 
it. I defy any one to find a profitable broiler plant, 
but I am satisfied it can be made to pay under my 
system of feeding, and in no other way yet known at 
the present time. 

I want to say to you broiler men, with your long 
piped houses, give them one more trial with eggs pro- 
duced under my system of feeding and your troubles 
are over. 

From January until June you can hatch broilers 
at a splendid profit under this system, for you can 
grow your later hatches up and make roasters of them 
at a grand profit; for under this S3^stem of feeding 
your birds Avill grow verv rapidlv and develop fully 
one-third qucker than fed the old way, stuffed with 
mashes. AVhen fed the old way, you will lose a large 
number with colds and roup, and have but few well 
chickens to sell. 



52 ERIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

Just a word here in growing your l)irds for roast- 
ers. Hither good wheat screenings or wheat which I 
feed must be kept before them all the time ; also a 
first class beef scrap and grit, charcoal, and good fresh 
water. And they should have one good feeding of 
processed oats about (j a. m. — all they will eat. At 
night give all the cracked corn the}- will take, and you. 
will grow roasters that will be a credit to you, and 
sickness among them will n()t ])e known, and }'Our 
profit will surprise \"u 

r>ut \'ou will find it t(j \(jur adxantage to market 
them as broilers as long as the}' luring 25 cents a 
pound and more. 

.\ ])an of corn meal, set where they can eat all 
thev want whenexer they wmt it, will also fatten them 
nicelv. Do not wet it, but let them eat it dry. 

L^uler these conditions only, can broilers be made 
to pa\' a profit and you can raise them well into the 
Summer on this free range system of cultivating the 
ground. Hut just as soon as you fail to raise 80 per 
cent of vour hatch better sto-j and sell \our eggs. 




White Wyandotte Female 



POULTRY RAISING. 53 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Diseases — thfeir cause and cure. 

I am ^oing- to write you a few words here on 
diseases of'^chickens. of which there are many, in fact 
so many that I will only mention a few which are apt 
to give you trouble. 

" Mrst. I will take the cause, which is improper feed- 
ing in nearly every case. All colds, roup, diolera, 
bowel tnnd^le come' from improper feeding. This also 
causes lice, which live on the hen, or rather the poison 
thrown ofif her system. 

Heavy feeding of rich mashes will quick knock 
out your birds and various diseases will soon step m. 
"our old fashioned farmers never knew what colds 
and roup were but of late years many farmers have 
been feeding mash to increase their egg yield, and the 
result — colds, roup, cholera. 

If you wall feed my way. and cut your mashes out 
you will not be troubled with disease. Roup and 
cholera will not be known. If you see a hen sick, 
just give her a tablespoonful of castor oil, and m 24 
hour? more, if she is not all right, give her another 
spoonful. If she is no better at the end of next 24 
hours, better cut her head off, and burn her up, for 
she will only mope around and tinally die. 

I find roup and colds in fowls grown, or nearly 
grown, can be cured in nearly every case without 
medicine by feeding them my way, and partly grown 
to one-third grown l)irds will improve very rajudly 
on this hopper feeding, and by the aid^ of good roup 
cure you can save nearly every bird and get them 
well and strong. P.ut never give them a mash. 

You mav occasionally have a hen go light but very 
rare on this method of feeding. I hnd corn is the- 



.54 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

cause of most birds going light. I have proved this 
to my entire satisfaction. Corn or cracked corn will 
not do at all kept in hoppers before your hens as 
they will grow poor and go light on it unless on 
plenty of range, but it can be kept before them without 
injury where two or three other kinds of grain are 
kept before them at all times. If you follow my sys- 
tem in every detail you will have no medicine to buy, 
as sickness will scarcely be known on a free range 
plant. But if you have a small yarded plant over- 
crowded in a very low damp, place, why then you will 
get some sick birds and colds and roup will be apt to 
break out in a light form any time and in such a place 
you should always keep a good roup cure on hand, and 
there is nothing I have ever tried as good as Conkey's 
Roup Cure. This will also tone your birds right up and 
is a splendid tonic during the Spring and Fall. Often in 
September, about the loth, a distemper is apt to strike 
all your young stock, and affect them in various ways, 
especially the stock not fully matured, so I strongly 
advise on all yarded plants to give Conkey's Roup 
Cure in drinking water, one-half dose from first to 
tenth of September, Avhen I would give full dose 
through rest of month and first half of October, and 
you will be well paid for it. All of Conkey's remedies 
are first-class and their advertisement will be found in 
this book. 

Hill's Bromide Quinine Tablets are also very good 
for severe individual cases which will occasionally 
break out. A tablet night and morning for a couple 
•of days will generaly bring most any bird in g"ood 
shape if taken in time. They can be bought in any 
drug store for 25 cents per package, and should always 
be kept on hand. You must expect to lose some birds 
during the Spring when they are laying heavy, but 
your loss should be light if my instructions are fol- 
lowed, and your yards are ploughed up as early as pos- 
sible in the Spring, especially on a yarded plant, for 
much filth is bound to accumulate during the Winter 
•close in front of vour houses, and vour hens constantlv 



POULTRY RAISING. 



55 



scratching in this is apt to sicken them. Air slack 
lime should be sown in these runs several times during 
the summer, say once every two months, and also on 
the roosts lightly once a week. This is for yarded 
plants only, for on a free range you do not have these 
things to contend with. 




RIOADlt FCt-jRyj»ullNiU.' 



Typical Barred Rocks 



^6 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XIX. 

When and how to start in the poultry business. 

Now comes the important part to the one who is 
.going- to start in tlie business when to start, and how. 
Now in either case you shoukl start in the hall if you 
wish to start on a large scale. For your, buildings 
should be put up in the Fall, even if you start by buy- 
ing your eggs and raising your own breeders. This 
is by far the cheapest way to start if you have not 
nnich capital. Get your incubator house ready in the 
Fall, providing j^ou have not a house cellar which will 
answer for your first year. 

You can get your brooders all right in the Spring 
if you only raise breeders^ but cannot start so early as 
where you ha^^e a brooder house. But the Cyphers 
Self— Regulating Brooders can be used out of doors 
very early in the Spring any time after March ist, 
as a rule. Pullets hatched middle of March should 
la}- in August under niy s}-stem of feeding, and keep 
right at it from then on. I can sell you all the eggs 
you w-ant from either single comb white Leghorns or 
White AX'yandottes, ])rO(luced under my system of 
feeding, at $6.00 per 100, in anv quantity, on short 
notice; eggs that will run cjo per cent fertile right in 
January. Now to the one who is well fixed, financial- 
ly, I advise him to start in the Fall. I advise putting 
up your laying- houses during Jul\- and August, and 
buy your pullets as early as possible during the Fall. 
October and November are usually the two months 
when you can buy cheaper than at any other time 
of the year. 

^'ou should have no trouble to Imy all the pullets 
and yearling- hens }ou -want of single conib white 
Leghorns din-ing these two months at $1.00 each. 



POULTRY RAISING. 57 

This is a very satisfactory way to start, but not so 
cheap as buying- the eggs and raising your own stock. 

You must buy eggs of a party who feeds little or 
no mash, if you wish to get good hatches of chicks that 
will live if given half a chance, for when an entirely 
inexperienced man tries to raise them they must be 
from hardy stock. 

You do not have to wait many months for profit 
to come in when you buy your eggs to start with, as 
you can market your cockerels for broilers. In three 
months from the time you set your machines, you can 
count on quite an income, so all things considered, ex- 
perience you get with the rest. 

I advise starting in the Spring, by buying your 
eggs and raising your tnvn chicks. These chicks can 
be raised very cheaply under my new system of giving 
them all the processed oats they will take three times 
a day, in connection with a good chick food before 
them all the time, as well as grit, charcoal and beef 
scraps. 

You should clean your brooder out at least once 
a week, which I find answers every purpose. Also 
keep your brooder part, where chicks are fed, covered 
with cut clover, as they eat much of this, and it is- 
verv beneficial to them. 



58 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 




ISTPUUET NEWWRK t I ""HEN 1^43' 
I "MEN NEW YORK g"' 
BREDO-VNED" ExnaTEOBY 
PwvoliXQ HICMlftnD MY 



White Leghorns — New York Winners 



POULTRY RAISING. 59.^ 



» CHAPTER XX. 

A Leghorn plant for profit. 

I want to say jnst a few words here as to what a 
Combination Leghorn Plant can be made to do, and 
to tell you how to rim such a plant for the greatest 
possible profit. 

First of all, your great aim must be the produc- 
tion of eggs, and for at least six months in the year 
you must feed this plant to produce not only eggs that 
will hatch but to produce eggs that will hatch chick- 
ens, that will live, cared for any old way. If you 
will feed your plant this way, and advertise eggs for 
hatching, produced by the new Briggs System, for 
producing fertile eggs that will hatch strong, healthy 
chicks, that will live if given half a chance, and offer 
to replace all clear eggs free if returned, express pre- 
paid, I am very positive a man with three thousand 
layers could clear from eight to ten thousand dollars 
a year, providing he feeds them on my system and 
gives them free range. 

You should sell }-our eggs during the hatching 
season for $6.00 per 100; or $50 per 1,000. Possibly 
you could make more money by selling them for $5.00 
per 100, in any quantit}-, and make no reduction, for 
quantity, for $5.00 per 100 is the popular price for good 
hatching eggs in this country. There is a grand profit 
in it when you produce them in such large numbers 
at so small a cost. 

Now for your breeders ; their care and feed. 

You must not feed a bit of mash. I will lay you 
down here the ideal way to feed for fertile eggs at a 
small cost eitlier a yarded or free range plant for Leg- 
horns only. 



6o BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

Beginning in December, the first thing in the 
morning, as soon as it is light, give 3^our hens a light 
feeding of bnckwheat or barley in your litter; about 
ij/2 quarts for 60 or 75 is plenty. Give warm water to 
drink, as early as convenient, and at 9 a. m. give 
each flock all the processed oats they will take. At 
I p. m., when you give your flocks more water, or put 
in warm water with what they have, give on this trip 
a light feeding of green cut bone — a quart to a flock of 
sixty, if they will take that much, if not, cut them 
down to a pint. 

About 3 p. m. give another feeding of processed 
oats, all they will eat. Remember, these only cost 
eight or ten cents a bushel. 

Before dark give not over i to ij/o quarts of 
cracked corn to a flock and gather your eggs. If it is 
very cold weather, you will also have to gather 3-our 
eggs on your i o'clock trij). 

These birds must have always before them grit, 
•oyster shells and charcoal. Also a hopper of beef 
scraps and one of wheat screenings or wheat. 

just a word about mating up your breeders to 
])roduce chickens which should practically everv one 
live. 

To do tliisDtake all your yearling hens and mate 
them with cockerels, not less than ten months old. 
Put these birds on my free range system and feed as 
I have here directed, you can then raise practically 
e\'erv chick you hatch. 

Pullets also hatched in February and March, 
mated to good vigorous yearling cocks, will also pro- 
duce chickens that are very hardy when a year old, 
and }Ou should have no trouble in raising 90 to 95 
per cent of these chicks. 

Under no circumstances use anything but a single 
comb white Leghorn for the greatest profit, because 
thev la}- the largest egg of the Leghorn family and 
are by far the most popular of the Leghorn family. 

To dispose of your breeders to the best advantage 
during July, August and September, you should make 



POULTRY RAISING. 6i 

a great clearance sale at $i.oo each. You will have 
no^'trouble to dispose of all your surplus stock at this 
price, and you will find this far preferable to putting 
them on the market. 

Care for your plan^, during the Summer as I laid 
down for Summer care and feeding. 

lust a word here in mating your male birds, for 
where vou follow u}) my system. 1 advise four cocks 
or cockerels for every sixty layers. These birds 
should be so mated that there is no fighting among 
them, and no "boss" as a rule. 

After vour breeding season is over, say July, you 
should remove nearly all your male birds and make 
one flock of them, except a few flocks which it would 
be well to keep mated the season through, so you can 
alwavs fill a stray order for hatching eggs. 

Your cockerels should also be separated from the 
pullets and placed in one large flock, or several flocks 
of a lOO or less in a flock. In this way, these male 
birds run together very peaceably and rarely ever 
fight : and you rarely see a "boss" among them. 

To mate them up, just take out of a bunch as 
manv as vou want for a flock of females, all at once, 
and 'let them go. You will then have no fighting and 
very seldom even a "boss." This is the' only way to 
mate up vour birds, for the best possible results. 

Never keep a brassy male bird. Have nothing 
but pure white birds on 'your place and you will find 
your profits can be greatly increased by gradually 
breeding into fancy birds. 

Show" a few at vour fall fairs, or local shows, det 
a standard and study them up. By careful selection, 
you can soon have a plant of very fine birds. 

Do not trv to show at the big shows, such as 
^[adison Square Garden or Boston, for it takes years 
of study or a large sum of money to win at such 
shows as these. 

Just a word about your houses and I am through. 
If the houses I have given you the plans of in this 
book are not warm enough for your location, you can 



o 



62 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



build them six feet at the CcU-es instead of four, by 
using a twelve foot board sawed in half in the centre. 
Put a floor in this house at eaves and fill the top with 
straw. Do not put on a tight floor, a floor of poles 
would work all right. You should also line the sides 
in the same way, and you would have a very warm 
house, Avhere you could get eggs in any kind of a 
Winter. 

' I want to say right here the Leghorn plants of 
this country are the only plants up to the present 
time that have made money in a market way. Eggs 
for market, at market prices, have made many of them 
rich. 

All that have tried the larger breeds such as 
Wyandottes, Rocks, etc., have failed, at it in a market 
wav, so they have all had to go in the fancy or give 
it up entirely. 




// ]) Lincoln Oir //, 






-f 



Light Brahma Bantam 



POULTRY RAISING. 63 



CHAPTER XXI. 
A White Wyandotte plant for profit. 

I have decided to add here a chapter on White 
Wyandottes, as I have bred them all my life, that is 
for the past eighteen years, and exhibited them all that 
time. I have seen them head all the large breeds in 
popularity, but the demand for them increases yearly. 
I know of no breed of the large fowl where it is such 
hard work to get good, fertile eggs that will hatch 
strong chicks, that are bound to live any old way, as 
it is from the White Wyandotte that have been bred 
for exhibition purposes in yarded plants. 

In breeding exhibition stock, every trace of 
creaminess or brassiness had to be bred out of them, 
and their stability has gone with it to a large extent. 

Imbrecding has also done much to injure the 
vitality of this breed. 

My aim here is to tell you how to feed and care 
for these birds, so you can get them hardy and full 
of vigor once more, without breeding out their fine 
qualities — and this can be done by feeding alone. 

I have experimented very carefully along this line 
and I find all large breeds should be fed quite different 
than the small breeds. 

First of all, they should never see corn in any 
form, that is the breeding stock. If any corn it must 
be in very limited quantities. 

I find they will stand the hopper feeding and give 
grand results. In fact, this is the only natural way 
of feeding any fowl, and the only safe way of feeding. 

First of all, give them your hopper of beef scrap 
and wheat screenings ; also grit, oyster shells and 
charcoal. The first thing in the morning, give a light 



64 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

feeding- of barlc\- or buckwheat in litter to induce all 
the exercise you can. 

At 9 a. m. gWe all the processed oats they will 
take. 

At I p. ni. a light feeding of green cut bone, a 
pint to a quart for 60 layers. 

At 3 p. m. all the processed oats they will take. 

At 4 p. m., or later, according to the time of the 
year, another feeding of oats. This should be fed 
to all large breeds in place of cracked corn. 

Always use clipped oats, and feed in the litter, 
and you will not only get an alnuidance of eggs, but 
eggs that will hatch strong healthy chicks that will 
live. Such eggs will run from 80 to 90 per cent fertile, 
right in the winter months. 

I am not guessing at this, for I am doing it right 
in February. 

Do not be afraid of the processed oats, but give 
all they will possibly take, for they are very light and 
it is impossible to overfeed on them. There is noth- 
ing I have ever tried that will make hens lay equal to 
them, and nothing so cheap. It costs only about half 
to feed a plant this way. 

You can always sell an}- amoimt of eggs for hatch- 
ing at $5.00 per 100. 

I am positive you could sell all a 3,000 laying- 
plant could produce for hatching by a liberal amount 
of advertising on the same lines I told you how to ad- 
vertise Leghorn eggs. 

You could sell a large quantity of breeders, for 
good prices, if you will start with fairly good stock 
and exhibit at the small shows on the start. 

One thing you have to contend with on a Wyan- 
dotte plant, you do not on a Leghorn plant, and that 
is setters. This means quite some work ; but you will 
not have near the amount of setters on a plant fed 
this way. 

To properly break up a setter, they should not 
be allowed to remain on the nest the first night, and as 
a rule three days will break up any setter. Or, if you 



POULTRY RAISING. 



65 



want to break her up in twenty-four hours, just put 
her with a bunch of surplus cockerels where a roo.t 
is handv and your hen will not think of settnig. 

Th'ere is no breed at the present time so hand- 
some as the White Wyandotte, when bred up for show 
Eposes, and no fowl that makes so fine a broder and 
boaster ^hen they are grown up healthy and -gged 
that is, nature's way, and this can be done on the feed 
ino- I have outlined on my free range system. \ou 
can tet eggs right in January that will run from 80 
o 90 percent fertile and give you grand hatches o 
trong rugged chicks that can be easdy -.sec right 
in the winter-and you will have no trouble to dis- 
pose of hundreds of laying pullets during Septen.ber 
October and November at $2.00 each. There is a 
o-rand profit raising pullets at this price, when >ou 
^Inraise 90 per cent and more of all the chicks you 
ha ch and'raise them largely on a feed that cos s you 
onlv 8 to 10 cents a bushel. So you can easdy se 
what a profit you can make by running a large plant 



my way. 



wav. fi 

Your small feed bills would surprise you, atter 

feedin^'- the old way. 

1 am positive "ten thousand dollars a year can 
■easilv be made off a plant of three thousand layers^ 
and even more when you work into high-class show 
birds and get three to five dollars a setting for many 
of vour eggs, and fifteen dollars a hundred. 

' Sell high-class birds from ten dollars each up to a 
hunch-ed It can be done by pluck and perseverence 
\ AA-hite AA'vandotte plant of three thousand 
lavei-s could turn in a greater profit than the same 
„,,,ber of any other breed, _ fed_ and run my wa> 
which is nature's way, providing it was handled by a 
AVhite Wyandotte fancier who thoroughly knew the 
value of his birds. 



66 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 




Columbian Wyandotte Cockerel. 

A New York Winner as bred by A. C. Hawkins, who breeds 
the world's best of this coming breed. 



POULTRY RAISING. (57 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A combination plant for profit — Fruit, Poultry, Bees. 

I feel that I must write a few words here on a 
combined plant for those who want to go on either a 
small or large scale, and do not want their eggs all in 
one basket; or to those who like a variety in life — for 
variety is the spice of life. 

There is no combination of business, that I know 
of, so profitable, and at the same time will give so 
much pleasure in various ways as this. First of all, 
•every poultry plant should be covered with fruit. 
This is the very first thing you should do. To pro- 
vide your poultry with shade and a peach tree gives 
the quickest shade of them all. Then the plum and 
the apple, and you are bound to get immense crops 
of fruit, where vou culti\'ate your ground, and use 
your poultry manure around your trees. And when 
you are feeding your poultry, how nice it is to have 
all the peaches you want to. eat, or plums, or pears, 
grapes, and, in fact, you should plant liberally of all 
kinds of fruit, and }Ou will find life worth the living. 

Now }'Ou want bees to fertilize your blossoms, so 
you will get large crops of fruit, and bees are very 
profitable and aft'ord a great amount of pleasure. 
They are very profitable, in fact, they often turn in a 
greater amount of jU'cfit, time and capital taken into 
consideration, than anything I know of. I have 
•cleared as high as $25.00 from a single hive in a season 
with but little labor. You have to give them no at- 
tention to speak of. from Octoljer ist to May 1st, and 
for only two months. May and June, do they need any 
great amount of attention. 

I advise everv one who keeps poultry to make 
of it a combined plant, Poultry, Fruit and Bees. 



68 



BRIGGS' SVSTEM OP" 



Yon must remember tliat fruit trees you must 
have on your poultry plant for shade, if you expect 
your poultry to do its best, and there is but little 
labor to care for a big lot of fruit in this way — and 
there will be years when your profit from fruit alone 
will not only give you a good living, but will give 
you a good fat bank account as well. Just think of 
eating peaches, for instance, from the first of July 
until November. This can be done, if you will plant 
several kinds from the earliest to the latest. You 
can also have all kinds of apples, plums, cherries, -and 
other fruit in the same way, grown at no expense, on 
your poultry farm, and anyone should enjoy life under 
such circumstances. 




Dark Brahma Bantams 



POULTRY RAISING. 69' 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Breeding for layers. 

There is no question but what it pays to use a 
good trap-nest and breed up your stock for layers. A 
few of your best flocks could be used for this purpose. 
Pullets would give you the best test for this, for after 
a month or two you would know which ones were 
laying the best, and at the end of the first year you 
could take all with a h\g egg record and keep them 
over, especially for your own breeders. In this way 
you could soon build yourself up a wonderful strain of 
layers that if cared for and fed on my system of free 
range, you would soon have flocks averaging you 200 
or more eggs a year. It is not possilile in any other 
way, in my opinion, and this is the only sure way of 
breeding high class show birds. Those that win the 
blue in the hottest competition, and it would not take 
so much extra time as you would think, for you could 
release your hens on every round you make. By 
breeding from the yearling hens that gave you the big 
egg yield as pullets, you would not have to trap-nest 
your hens the second year. In this way, you could 
easily develop a wonderful strain of layers which 
would more than repay you for time spent. In fact a 
big plant could well afford to hire an extra man for 
this purpose alone — that is, on a three thousand lay- 
ing plant, it would pay to hire a good man to do noth- 
ing but take care of your eggs and trap your hens. 
In this way I am positive you could soon have noth- 
incf but 200 egg hens. 



70 



BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 







1^^^^%%^^ 



Pen White Leghorns— Boston Winners 



POULTRY RAISING. 71 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Moulting. 

I wish to say a few words here in regard to moult- 
ing, especially on a yarded plant, for on a free range 
plant 1 believe in keeping them laying right through 
the moult for as a rule when they have practically 
their entire new coat, they will in most cases stop lay- 
ing and take a rest, for a hen must have a rest and time 
to build up. For as a rule on a free range plant when 
you continue your harrowing and sowing oats you can 
keep your birds laying pretty well all through. Octo- 
ber and November, wdien they will drop off and have 
their rest then you should have }Our pullets under 
full headway if you are in the market egg business. 
But if you depend on selling eggs for hatching, then 
I advise you to let your hens have their rest during 
November and December and get them under full head- 
way in January, then you will produce eggs that will 
hatch, and if other things are favorable }'Our eggs 
should run c,o to 95 per cent, fertile from January ist 
on, and hatch' eijual to eggs laid in March and .Vpril, 
providing-yoUr hens are fed under my system. 

Now in caring for a yarded plant you will find 
your hens will slack off heavy during July and August 
and during September, October and November, you- 
W'ill get but few eggs from the large breeds, and as a 
rule, all things considered, taking the eggs you get in 
consideration and getting your stock in the best possi- 
ble condition for Winter eggs, I advise keeping your 
hens on nothing Init processed oats and beef scraps, 
for this will put them through the earliest moult of any- 
thing I have ever tried, and your oats should contain 
sprouts one-half inch long for this and will cost you 
about 12 cents per bushel. You will also be surprised 



;72 



BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



at the amount of eggs you will get during this period. 
December ist put before them their hoppers of 
wheat screenings or cheap wheat and to every pail of 
processed oats add one teaspoonful of cheyenne pep- 
per and one of salt, wdiich makes your hens very 
thirsty, and the more water she drinks the more eggs 
she will lay. Your hens will respond to this treatment 
and surprise you on eggs and should lay as well during 
January as any month in the year. 




POULTRY RAISING. 73- 



CHAPTER XXY. 

Erection of a Yarded Plant. 

I must say a few words here to those who have 
but a Httle land and must yard their stock. First you 
will want a good laying house and in order to house 
a large number of birds, at the least possible expense, 
and to economize in lal^or, I advise a plain house with- 
out an alleyway, one about 80 feet long for the least 
labor, for in a house without an alleyway you must 
open 'all your doors in passing through. I would di- 
vide this house in eight pens, 10x15 feet, build your 
house 15 feet wide, 80 feet long, 7 feet high in front and 
5 feet in rear, put one fair size window in each depart- 
ment about two feet from the ground, fit your windows 
loose and slide up to roof and make your holes for 
letting hens out under the window, fitting wooden 
slides very loose to slide sideways so you can open 
and shut them with your foot, put in your wire netting 
])artitions everv ten feet, hang your doors two 
feet from front of house with spring hinges and have 
your doors all swing one way. then you can walk 
right through the house and your doors will always 
clSse themselves. In making your partitions, you 
should always run a ten-inch board across at bottom 
and vour door should swing over this. You can also 
fit a Van on shelf over this board between partitions, 
and in this way you can water two fiocks at once. 
Your nests can go on one side and your feed hoppers 
on the other. This house should be filled in with at 
least six inches of sand and then it will always be dry. 
Dropping boards can be placed on back side of house, 
a platform 3 feet wide is about right with three roosts 
over it 10 inches apart, all on a level i foot from plat- 



74 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

form is about right. You can keep thirty leghorn lay- 
ers and two male birds to a pen nicely in such a house, 
or if the larger birds twenty-four females and two male 
birds. They should have yards 50 to 150 feet long, 
the longer the better and you should at once set these 
yards with peach or plum trees for shade, and plow 
them several times during the Summer if possible. 

You will want a feed house handy by for feed. 
You can use your own judgment in building this; size 
will depend largely on size of plant. I advise a board 
floor in it and you can put bins in it and also leave a 
part for a picking room. 

Now you will want a good brooder house. The 
length of this will depend on the size of plant you build 
or the amount of room you have. It is always best to 
build too large. I advise a house fully "15 feet wide, ■ 

would raise it one foot from ground on posts, and put 
in a board floor. ^Vould also board this i foot space 
with rough boards and under this floor put a cat and ; 

you will never have a rat in your brooder house. Can 
put a window or two so 3'our cat will have some light. 
I would build this house 7 feet high at north side, and • 

4^/2 feet at south side, a single pitch roof. Put along 
north side a 3 foot alleyway, and cut your house up 
in 6 foot pens. They will be 6x9 about, outside of 
hover and each pen will accommodate 100 chickens. I i 

advise Cyphers Heating System, but not the open top * 

system. Leave one foot only between hover and alley- j 

way. You will want a felt curtain on both sides of j 

hover. You will need a window in each department, | 

hang it at bottom as it will open inside. Also put \ 

some ventilators along north side of house, and every 
ten feet just fit in a board 3 inches wide, 3 feet long, 
put on hinges and let it open inside of house, and you 
will find these ventilators very fine for hot weather. 
You will want a slide in every pen for letting chicks 
■outdoors, also a slide between every pen in house so 
you can run chicks right along from one end of house 
to the other. You should use a lo-inch board to divide 
all your pens. This will also hold your pipes, and 



« I 



POULTRY RAISING. 



75- 



from this board up, you can use wire netting a foot of 
one inch mesh netting first, and from this to roof you 
can use two inch mesh. If you breed leghorns you will 
want this house wired to the roof. Of course you must 
have a gate from alleyway in every pen. A brooder 
house like this comes in very handy on a free range 
plani for raising chicks during February and March, 
for you can never get out too many early chicks. You 
will also want several colony houses in yards to grow 
up your young stock in. A little house, 3x5, will ac- 
commodate 60 to 75 nicely until they are large enough 
to roost in trees if you are fortunate enough to have 
trees in your yards. If you have not, by all means set 
out peach trees in them at once for your chicks are 
never as healthy as when roosting in trees during the 
hot summer months, and the oftener you can plow 
your yards and sow with oats the faster your chicks 
will grow, and if you have kept them growing without 
a setback your most forward pullets should be laying, 
at four months of age. 




76 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Conclusion. 

In closing np the poultry department of this book 
there' are some things I want to impress on you, so 
you will thoroughly understand everything. In order 
to get the greatest egg yield always add some chey- 
enne pepper and salt to your processed oats daily the 
year round, not less than a teaspoonful of each to a ten 
quart pailful of feed, for the greater amount of water a 
hen drinks the more eggs she will lay. In hot weather 
keep your oats well wet down with cold water so they 
will not spoil ; wet them thoroughly twice daily if nec- 
essary. Never wet them before feeding. Any common 
feeding oats will grow just as well as high priced ones, 
and if you want them at any time for green feed only, 
let sprouts get 1^/2 to 2 inches long. But remember 
they have more feeding value and are the greatest egg 
producers when sprouts are j-z to i inch long. Re- 
member for young chicks there is nothing that will 
grow them so fast as these processed oats and a little 
cheyenne pepper added, same as for hens is very 
good for them. Give your young chicks all they will 
take three times a day sure. Also remember they are 
a great feed for young ducks and will grow them very 
rapidly and increase their size. Do not be afraid to 
give them all they will take two or three times daily. 
While I find a good grade of wheat screenings far 
ahead of any other feed for hopper feeding, I also find 
it very hard to obtain and at times I am compelled to 
feed wheat. If you cannot get good screenings by all 
means use a cheap grade of wheat. Red wheat is bet- 
ter than white wheat. 

I also wish to impress on you the importance of 
a free range plant for you cannot fail if you build one 



POULTRY RAISING. ^^ 

of my free range plants, and liandle it under my sys- 
tem. I know of no business that will make you money 
faster, all things considered, than the poultry business 
if handled properly. And I know of ho business where 
money can be lost faster, all things considered, than in 
the poultry business. I have taken plants that have 
had to go out of business and started them in again 
under my free range plan with leghorns and they have 
made money very rapidly on same plant, where under 
the old system they lost everything, so you can see 
it is in the proper feed and care that makes success 
certain. 

If your little chicks die badly during first two 
weeks you will find your trouble is with your breeders 
almost every time. To all who follow my free range 
system success is certain. If your chicks are closely 
confined in small yards and l)egin to die and dwindle 
away at 3 to 4 weeks of age. you must begin to feed 
them green cut bone when 3 weeks old sure. Give a 
liberal feeding every noon for nothing else will bring 
them ahead. Also spade yards up and sow with oats 
as often as vou can until you get them on more range. 
I am always ready to give you advice and help all I 
can, time permitting. 



78 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



A FEW THINGS TO 
REMEMBER 



All oats will not grow satisfactor}-, and if you get 
some that will not nearly all grow, try another lot of 
another dealer, for when they grow satisfactory you 
will have a complete mass of roots and sprouts which 
should be one-half to one inch lone:. 



Have several large lots of oats growing for a large 
plant, and do not get out of them, for this is your 
main feed for producing eggs and for growing chicks. 
There is nothing like it. Give them all they will take 
three times a day, sure. As they live and grow on this 
as they will on nothing else, and it forms fully 80 
per cent of their rations after they are a week old. 



If you fail to make the success you expect under 
this system, write me, enclosing stamp, and I will 
straighten yoti out. For you cannot go wrong if you 
follow my instructions to the letter. 



If your little chicks have board floors, you should 
clean their pens out every four days, sure, and put the 
leavings in runs of your old hens, they will clean up 
all seeds and oats not eaten by chicks. Cover your 
floor lightly with clover, there is nothing as good. 



Your Leghorn pullets should lay at five months 
of age, sure, if you have fed and cared for them as 
laid down in this book. If they do not, you have 
failed to carry out some important part, or your stock 
is not the laying kind. 



POULTRY RAISING. 79 

A poor memory is a poor thing for a poultry man 
and will put you out of business. By all means put 
your memory in your business. Nothing can be neg- 
lected or forgotten, if you wish certain- success. 



Trap and poison all rats during the Fall and 
early Winter, for you cannot raise the two on the 
same plant. "Common Sense Rat Exterminator" is 
the best rat poison I have ever used, and if you cannot 
get it of your dealer, write H. H. Cannon, Irvington- 
on-Hudson, N. Y., who carries it in stock. 



Hopper feed only wheat feed, such as a good 
grade of screenings or a cheap grade of wheat. Do 
not hopper feed corn of any kind and then wonder why 
you are not getting results. 



Remember, you cannot get a hen laying in a day 
or two. It takes from two to five weeks, depending 
on the condition of the hen and the time of the year. 
So, for big results, do not neglect your hen and let 
her stop laying. 



Do not neglect your houses and let them get full 
of mites and lice. Go over your roosts at least once a 
month during Summer with kerosene and carbolic 
acid, half and half — or a good lice exterminator. Also 
clean droppings from board floors once a week sure, 
at all times of the year, for lice multiply very rapidly 
in droppings in the Summer time on board floors. On 
the ground, it is different. 



8o BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 



DUCK CULTURE 



Believing this book may fall in the hands of many 
who raise a few ducks, and possibly in the hands of 
some who may raise thousands annually, and as I have 
raised from five to ten thousand yearly for many years 
very successfully, until I now am able to raise nearly 
every duck hatched that has strength enough to eat and 
drink. 

i will take up the care of the breeding stock, as 
the foundation of success all lies with the breeders. 
First, you must select your breeders and in every 
case they must be young ducks. 

Never keep an old duck over the second year, 
for they will not lay before February, as a rule, while 
young ducks start in December, if properly fed and 
housed. I prefer breeders hatched in April to any 
other month, as they get fully matured early in the 
Fall and are hatched from our strongest eggs. 

All breeders should be hatched from April 15 to 
May 15, and such ducks should begin to lay in Decem- 
ber. 

Your breeding ducks can be kept very light dur- 
ing September and October. Do not let them get too 
poor, for if you do, you may lose some. 

If you are on a farm you can give them range and 
but little feed. A mash of wheat bran and gluten 
meal, ecjual parts, makes a very cheap feed to Sum- 
mer them on. 

About November first, you must begin to feed 
them up and house them, if you wish to get early eggs. 
This is where the profit comes in. Give a mash, 
morning and night, from November first on, as fol- 



POULTRY RAISING. 8i 

lows. One part bran, one part middlings, one 
part corn meal, one part clover, five per cent beef 
scraps, two per cent grit and oyster shells. Give 
all they will eat of this, night and mor;iing, and keep 
water by them if they have not a pond. Also give 
them water in ther houses at night. A butter tub, 
sawed down, makes a handy thing. 

About December first, increase your beef scrap 
gradually, from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, and lift your 
ducks occasionally by the neck and see how thin they 
are. Do not let them get too fat if they begin to lay 
in December and in January, If they do not gain 
much, and are thin in flesh, gradually increase your 
corn meal and add some whole corn and whole wheat. 
The more they gain on eggs, the heavier feed they 
must have to keep them in good flesh, for a good 
Pekin duck should lay from 75 to 100 eggs without 
stopping, you should also raise their beef scraps from 
10 per cent to 15 per cent and give more oyster shells 
and grit. It requires great judgment in feeding a 
flock of Pekins for the most eggs and to have them 
run good and fertile. I have seen flocks of breeders 
knocked out the whole season by getting them too 
fat before they got to laying good. Your breeders 
for best results should be mated up one drake to five 
ducks and your eggs should run fully 90 per cent 
fertile from ]\Iarch 20th on, and if they do not as a 
rule you Avill find your breeders are to fat. 

If 3^ou keep ducks for the greatest possible profit, 
you will find none to ecjual the Pekins as layers, and 
for quick growers whicli stand close confinement they 
head the list of market ducks to day. 

In hatching duck eggs I find a temperature of 
102^ plenty high for good results, and you will get 
much better hatches in warm weather by airing your 
eggs both morning and night. 

AVhen they hatch put them in your brooder and 
give warm water to drink. Watch them closely for 
two days and teach them to go where the heat is and 
after that vou have no further trouble. Give warm 



82 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF 

water to drink for first two weeks sure, for cold 
water will give them cramps which quickly kills them 
and if they do not die it will so stunt them that they 
never get over it. 

I have at last found a perfect feed for young 
ducks first hatched, and that is Spratt's Patent chick 
feed. I pour hot water on it which increases the bulk 
about one-half; when cool feed and you will find every 
duck that can be raised, or better every duck that has 
strength to eat, will live on this feed and they grov^ 
very rapidly on it. In fact they could be put to 
market on it but it would not pay as the feed is to 
high priced ; but it pays well to start them on it, for 
they eat but little the first two weeks. I would not be 
without it in raising ducks. 

After they are two weeks old you can gradually 
change them on a mash made as follows : One part 
wheat bran, one part middlings, two parts corn meal, 
ten per cent beef scraps, a little grit and you will find 
they grow ver}^ rapidly on this. Twenty per cent 
of green feed can be added with grand results. After 
the seventh week double up your corn meal and in- 
crease your beef scraps to 15 per cent and if you have 
the large kind of Pekins they should be ready for 
market on this feed at nine weeks of age and fully 
80 per cent of your flock should average five pounds 
each, dressed weight ; and many will go over this 
weight. 

Spratt's chick feed will cost you $6.00 per hundred, 
and even at this price it is the cheapest thing I know 
of for starting young ducks, for every one li\es on it 
that is fit to leave the incubator. It is the natural duck 
feed, although not generally known. 

In dressing ducks for market, hang them in pairs 
on a line and stick in roof of mouth with a sharp 
knife and at the same time hit them a solid blow on 
top of the head and pull out their main tail feathers 
and wing feathers, except flight feathers or plainer 
feathers on last or outside joint of wing. Soon as 
dead take them down, wash out mouth, and take them 



POULTRY RAISING. 83 

by the head, two at a time, and dip them in a kettle of 
boihng water until feathers come easy. You will 
quickly learn this with little practice. Have a pail of 
cold water ready to wet your fingers and take the 
feathers from the breast first and then turn it over 
and remove the rest, taking all large feathers ofif. 
They are then laid on a shelf for a finisher, which 
generally gets three cents each, they clean them up, 
then they go in tubs of cold water and later in a 
barrel of ice water, from which they are packed in 
barrels and heavily iced and shipped to market. 

As soon as your Breeders are doing laying about 
July first, they should be sent to market alive. You 
will never get more profit out of them as a rule. 

You can also make a fine profit selling duck eggs 
for hatching at $8.00 per hundred. A duck plant can 
make a fine profit if handled right, as sickness and lice 
are not known in the cluck lousiness. Duck eggs do 
not hatch near as well as hens eggs in incubators as a 
rule, but you have no loss after they are hatched. 

I have carefully experimented with processed oats 
for ducks during 1906, and find them a wonderful feed 
for young ducks. After they are two weeks old give all 
they will eat twice daily, say 10 a. m., also 3 p. m., and 
you will find them the greatest growing feed ever fed 
to a duck, and it also greatly reduces the feed bill, and 
your young will be ready for market fully one week 
sooner. They are also a fine feed for old ducks and 
will greatly increase the egg yield. Give the old 
Breeders all they will possibly take noons. And if 
your old ducks do not run on grass, give them all the 
processed oats they will take twice daily, about 11 
a. m. and 3 p. m., and it will not only produce a larger 
number of eggs but very fertile eggs as well. Always 
select your largest, finest ducks for breeders. 

In case your young ducks are in very small yards 
and tlo not get sufficient exercise, and begin to go 
back or have bowel trouble on Spratt's Chick feed, why 
then you can mix bran with it also stale bread, soaked 
in water, say equal parts of each, and feed every other 



84 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF ; 



feeding on this until you change their feed after two 
weeks of age, and you should have no further trouble. 
You must remember one thing in going in the duck 
business, it means lots_ of hard work and is no business 
for a lazy man. But if you live near a good size city 
and can work up a good private trade for your young 
ducks among private families, markets and hotels, and 
not have to depend on the commission man, why you 
will find a fine profit in ducks. 



» 



FOR SALE 



White Wyandotte Eggs 



Produced under my free range system in any quan- 
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ings. Single Comb Wliite Leg Eggs from the finest 
free range stock in this country, $6.00 per 100, or $50.00 
per 1000, in any quantity. No order too large. Single 
settings $2.00 per 15. These eggs hatch chicks that are 
bound to live if given half a chance. 

I can also save you money on Cyphers' Celebrated 
Incubators and Brooders. Get my prices on beef 
scraps and Chick Feed. 

Cash must accompany all orders. 

Reference: D. Lincoln Orr, Orrs Mills, N. Y., ex- 
Prosident American Poultry Association. 

EDGAR BRIGGS 

NEW ROCHELLE, - NEW YORK. 



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SPRATT'S PATENT 




THE BEST AND CHEAPEST CHICK FOOD. 

It is the best dr}- Chick Food that can be compounded^ 
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Chicgrain is a perfectly-balanced, semi-cooked, partly 
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like weeds. 

Chicgrain if fed according to directions, will grow a 
larger fowl, with less trouble, labor and expense than any 
drj- food on the market. 

Price in packages, loc, 25c., 50c., $1.00 and $3.50. 

SPRATT'S PATENT CHICK MEAL NO. 5 

is prepared strictly according to modern scientific methods- 
and is the result of careful and exhaustive experiments. 

It has been demonstrated and is admitted by all experts 
that to rear birds successfully and bring them to t'ne highest 
state of perfection, they must have, while very young, a 
cooked food, and their corn diet must be carefully limited. 
This food should be composed of cereals, meat, vegetables, 
bone and shell in judicious combination. Such is Spratt's- 
Patent Chick Meal No. 5. 

We also manufacture special)}- prepared foods for Dogs,. 

Puppies, Cats, Rabbits, Poultry, Pigeons, Game, Birds, Fish. 

Send for Free Catalogue. "Dog Culture." whicn contains 

practical chapters on the feeding, kenneliuigi and general' 

management of do,giS, also chapters on cats. 

Write for copy of "Poultry Culture," whic'h contains 
much valuable information. 

-Market St., Newark, N. J.; 714 S. 4th St., St. Louis, AIo.; 
1324 Valencia St., San Francisco, Cal.; 1279 Ontario St., 
Cleveland, O.; 11 Union St., Boston, Mass.; 988 Notre Dame- 
St.; Montreal, Can. 

SPRATT'S PATENT (AM.) LTD. 



That Which Half Completes — Fails 

Fight shy of failures and use the old, reliable standard 
remedies which have the endorsement of the leading poul- 
tr3'men of the world. 

CONKEY'S ROUP CURE 

conquers this most fatal disease of the poultry yard and re- 
stores the useless fowls to health and profit. 

Roup begins with a cold, followed by sneezing, wheez- 
ing, discharge from nostrils and eyes, which thickens and 
gives forth an offensive odor. Conkey's Roup Cure is guar- 
anteed to satisfy you, or your money will be returned without 
question. Just a thimbleful, according to directions, and the 
fever.ish fowls eagerly take their own medicine and cure 
themselves. Prices 5cc. and $i.oo, postpaid. 

CONKEY'S CELEBRATED BOOK ON POULTRY FREE 

An illustrated book of 48 pages, full of useful informa- 
tion to the poultry raiser. Housing, Breeding, Feeding, 
Matiugi, and poultry care generally. The price is.2SC., but 
you can have a' copy free for 4c. in stamps and names of 
two others interested. Send to-day. 

CONKEY'S STANDARD REMEDIES 

are used the world over. They are guaranteed to t'he 
and j'ou get your money back if they don't suit j-ou. 
will cure your fowls. 

Conkey's Roup Cure. 
Conkey's Bronchitis Remedy. 
Conkey's Cholera Remedy. 
Conkey's Gape Cure. 
Conkey's Chicken Pox Remedy. 
Conkey's Limber Neck Remedy. 
Conkey's Scaly Leg Remedy. 
Conkey's Rheumatic Remedy. 
Conkey's Healing Salve. 
Conkey's Poultry Laxative. 
Conkey's Poultry Tonic. 
Conkey's Laying Tonic. 
Conkey's Lice Powder. 
Conkey's Lice Liquid. 
Conkey's Head Lice Ointment. 
Conkey's Nox-I-Cide. 
Conkey's Sulphur Candles. 
Conkey's Fly Knocker. 
Conkey's Distemper Remedy. 
Conkey's Mange Remedy. 

THE G. E. CONKEY CO 



limit. 
They 




416 Ottawa Bldg., 



Cleveland, Ohio. 



HAWKINS 

BREEDS AMERICA'S BEST 

PLYMOUTH ROCKS, 

BARRED, WHITE AND BUFF. 

WYANDOTTES 

COLUMBIANS, SILVER, WHITE AND BUFF. 

Winners at New York, Boston, World's Fair, and 

America's greatest shows for 20 years. 

2000 Choice Birds for Sale 

EGGS 

From prize matings, i sitting $5.00; 2 sittings, 
$8.00; 3 sittings $10.00; 5 sittings $15.00; $20.00 per 
100. 

Catalogue of AMERICA'S BEST free. 

fl.e. HAWKINS, 

LOCK BOX 3, LANCASTER, MASS. 



YOUNG'S STRAIN OF 

SINGLE-COMB WHITE 
LEGHORNS 

I HAVE NO OTHER BREEDS. 

Winning- more prizes in the last seven years than 
all others combined at the World's Greatest Show, 
JMadison Sqnare Garden, New York, is positive proof 
that I have the grandest strain of Single Comb White 
Leghorns in America. Not only has my strain won 
highest honors for myself, it has also won for my cus- 
tomers, in almost e\'eryshow large and small in the 
United States and Canada. My winnings at Madison 
Square 1907: — Cocks, First, Second and Fifth; Hens, 
First and Third, Cockrels, Third; Pullets, First and 
Third; Breeding Pen, Second; Fourteen cash specials, 
and for the third and last time the American Leghorn 
cup for best Cock, Hen, Cockerel, Pullet and Pen. 
Stock and eggs for sale at all times; 1907 mating list 
free. Address 

D. W. YOUNG, 

RIDGEWOOD, - NEW JERSEY 



Roberts Poultry Farm 

BREED NOTHING BUT 
FIRST-CLASS 

WHITE WYANDOTTE 

Exhibition and Utility. 

\\'e have won First and Second four successive years 
at jMadison Square Garden and other large shows. 

They are not Httle "chunks" but are large business 
fowls that lay lot of eggs that hatch out chicks 
which grow to be broilers, roasters and great layers. 

We have a large flock of birds fed under free range 
system laid down in this book. 

PRICE OF EGGS: 

13 for $3.00; 26 for $5.00; $6.00 per 100; $50 per 1000. 



ALLEN C. ROBERTS 

PARKER FORD, PA. 



Standard Bone Cutter Co. 

Manufacturers of 

Green Bone Cutting Machines 

FOR HAND AND POWER 




The Standard Bone Cutting Company manufac- 
ture eleven different sizes for hand and power ranging 
in prices from $6.75 to $195.00. 

All their bone cutters are built on the same prin- 
ciple; positive automatic feed, automatic stop, with 
horizontal cylinders, knives in cutter plate always in 
sight cutting across the grain Avhich are features of 
our bone cutters which excel those found in other 
makes. The bone cutters are substantially built, and 
will last for years with ordinary care. Every machine 
they ship is warranted and if it does not do as they 
represent in the catalog, you can return it and they 
will refund the money. They ship on ten days trial.- 
Write for catalog and free trial plan. 

Standard Bone Cutter Co., 

BOX 71, MILFORD, MASS. 
Mention this book when writing. ^ 1 fi 7 f{ ik 



;i 



